A wounded and under-pressure India side will seek to blast Bermuda off the park today in an effort to boost both their pride and their run rate after a hugely embarrassing defeat to Bangladesh on Saturday.

Greg Chappell's team came into the tournament as one of the favourites for the title, but will now probably have to win both of their remaining games against Bermuda and Sri Lanka respectively if they are to avoid crashing out of the tournament before the Super 8s - a failure which will be greeted by a deafening roar of outrage in a country where cricket is seen in some quarters as more important than life itself.

The 1983 World Cup winners won the toss and elected to bat first on Saturday, but were put under early pressure by Bangladesh's improving seam attack and were eventually bundled out for only 191.

In reply, the Bangladesh batsmen came out determined to go on the offensive, with a barnstorming knock from the young left-handed opener Tamim Iqbal (52) setting the scene for a famous five-wicket win.

Surrounded by a jostling horde of Indian journalists yesterday after a light training session aimed primarily at the under-performing batsmen in the Queen's Park Oval nets, the former Australian captain said they were all unhappy with the loss - but insisted there was no reason to panic. “It was a disappointing defeat, but I would not be much harsher than that,” said the man with arguably the most pressure-filled coaching job of any team at this World Cup.

“Bangladesh played very well and they surprised us with their aggression on the day. Their batsmen came out and really took the game to us. That young left-hander Tamim Iqbal is a very good player and I think it's probably fair to say that our bowlers were not really expecting that kind of onslaught.

”So it's not the start we wanted by any means, but there's no point crying over spilt milk.

“They outplayed us on the day, there's no question about that. But for us it's a matter of focusing and getting back to the kind of form we were showing in the couple of series before the World Cup in which we were playing some excellent cricket.

”There's no point in worrying about results elsewhere now. All we can concentrate on are the things that we can control and that involves going out there and playing two good games of cricket and winning both of them. Nothing else matters.

“Nobody is more disappointed with the Bangladesh result than the boys, but I have a great belief in the resilience of this team.

”I've lost count in the number of times I've sat in press conferences similar to this where we've lost a game and I've been fielding much the same types of question.

“But then the team has responded by going out there and winning the next game and then suddenly everything is alright again and things are back on track.”

Bangladesh's victory over India realistically now makes it a three-horse race for the top two positions in Group B, while net run-rate is also expected to be strong factor when it comes to determining who progresses.

This makes annihilating the weakest side in the group a top priority for both India and Bangladesh.

The feeling is therefore that Bermuda's bowlers are going to be placed under a huge amount of pressure today by India's mighty batting line-up - which boasts the likes of the great Sachin Tendulkar, the captain Rahul Dravid and others such as Virenda Sehwag and Saurav Ganguly.

Pressed on this yesterday, Chappell said they would be focusing more on simply winning the two remaining games by any means necessary and trusting in the philosophy that if they play to their potential, then the run-rate issue would simply take care of itself.

“Run rate will come into it and be part of the final calculation for sure,” he said.

“But if we get too far ahead of ourselves and take our eye off the basics then that's where we're going to get into trouble.

”After all, if we lose the two games then run rate becomes irrelevant and we'll be out of the tournament.

“So above all we have to concentrate on playing good, positive cricket in the two games against Bermuda and Sri Lanka and if we do that there's no reason why we can't win both of them.

”Bermuda are a team we do not know too much about, but they're certainly a side we are expected to beat, that we should beat and we're going to be doing everything we can to do just that.“ Meanwhile, Chappell continually batted away questions about the potential make-up of the Indian side to face Bermuda, while he also defended the captain's decision to bat first against Bangladesh with the wicket offering plenty of early bounce and movement.

”The selection of the team is something that will be discussed later and is not something I'm prepared to talk about before then,“ he said.

”On the subject of the wicket, I think the decision to bat first against Bangladesh was the correct one at the time and I think if we revisited that moment we would make the same decision.

“Bangladesh bowled very well at us. I thought the field placings were excellent as well, and it was through a combination of good tight bowling, superb captaincy they managed to put a lot of pressure on us, and as you know, pressure often brings you wickets.

”I agree though that we should have responded to the challenge a lot better and we'll be looking to put that right against Bermuda.

“Yes, there's a bit of pace and bounce in the track early on, but in my opinion if you can get through the first few overs with the new ball it's an excellent pitch to bat on and you should be able to set a commanding total.

”We'll have to wait and see what the conditions are like for the Bermuda game, but I don't see any problem with the decision to bat first.

“What we have got to do though is bat better than we did, because once you're in on this wicket, there are plenty of runs to be had.”